4th of July Camp Out – July 2-5

We have so many great activities planned for our 4th of July camp out. Join us in the fun!

Desert Hot Springs Tour – We will tour Double Hot Springs and Black Rock Hot springs. As we visit these sites there will be an informative talk about the historic Emigrant Trail. We will depart our camp at 9am on Saturday.

Black Rock Point Hike – Bring plenty of water and a lunch for a hike to the top of the desert’s namesake! This hike will immediately follow our hot springs tour, so meet us at our camp at 9am on Saturday. We plan on being at Black Rock Hot Spring at approximately 11am before we head up to hike Black Rock Point, but we cannot guarantee that’s when we will be there.

Geocaching Scavenger Hunt– Stop in our visitor’s center or find our camp for details on how to join our scavenger hunt. We will have 9 prominent features of the Black Rock High Rock NCA. Participants who find any 6 of the 9 places on the list will win a special Friends prize! We will also be conducting an Instagram photo contest following the hunt so be sure to capture some great shots, use #FBRHR4thofJuly.

Potluck BBQ- Saturday evening at 6:30pm we will be firing up our grill and having a BYOF (Bring Your Own Food) potluck BBQ and we would love if you would join us.

Moon and Star Gazing- We’re bringing our telescope, so stop by our camp to get a closer look at the celestial features of the vibrant night sky!

Outdoor Ethics Outreach- Wondering how to minimize your footprint while enjoying the wilderness? Flag us down and say hello, we’d love to visit and share information about the area and how to recreate responsibly. We’ll be cruising around on our green Polaris 4 seat UTV, so keep an eye out for us.

We plan on camping at GPS coordinates: 40°49’33.3″N 119°12’45.0″W with Will Roger Peterson and his silver Airstream. We will be bringing two porta-potties, and we will have shade set up. So feel free to stop by and say hello.

Join our scavenger hunt! Download the list below or pick up a copy at our camp during the event.

Ham Radio info for 4th of Juplaya

Are you a new Ham? Bring your (charged!) radio, instruction manual, and charger, long-time Ham and FBRHR member David KD7YIM will be available to give you a hand. Tip: You’ll probably need to recharge your radio during the weekend! An inexpensive DC to AC inverter will enable you to charge it from the power port in your car. These are about $15 or $20 at Harbor Freight and if you have a coupon they’ll give you a 20% discount and a free voltmeter, screwdriver set, tape measure or something!

There are 2 commonly used repeaters in the Black Rock. The VHF repeater 145.230(-600 KHz)PL 123 has the widest coverage but the UHF repeater 440.175(+5 MHz)PL 100 has a digipeter, *911 emergency access, and IRLP node #7249. Program them into your radio! Another good frequency is 146.520 simplex, that’s the nationwide VHF calling frequency and is commonly used for radio-to-radio chatting. And if you have a mobile radio, program 147.030(+600MHz)PL 123 into your radio since that repeater will reach into Reno from many locations on the Playa!